


Off With His Head

by Ommallaredpanda



Series: The Miscellaneous Adventures of Vader Senior, Vader Junior and Vader Junior-ette [3]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Mentions of Attempted Suicide, really quick fic, the start of a longer one im working on
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-31 18:22:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21150152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ommallaredpanda/pseuds/Ommallaredpanda
Summary: Luke finds someone, bound and helpless on Mustafar.AKA: I needed my angst, alright.





	Off With His Head

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome to my short fic! This is a tiny one shot which is only the start of a much larger other work which I shall post seperately.
> 
> Enjoy!

Luke stood in the doorway, his small frame barely casting a shadow. Previously bright sterile lighting was flickering dimly, and durasteel wreckage was scattered before him. Familiar marks marred the dark walls, rending gashes in the tough material. Luke was leaning slightly on his left hand, propping himself up against the doorframe as his straining eyes attempted to make out what was within the room he teetered on the edge of.

Eventually, shapes of darker and lighter black began to swim into his vision, as the Rebellion pilot’s eyes adjusted. A great lump was on the floor, with jagged edges that suggested yet more debris. Towards the back was a floor-to-ceiling window, through which hardly any light streamed past the broken edges. A night sky peered in from the gaping hole, doing little to alleviate the darkness shrouding the room. In front of the window, a gleaming wooden desk was upturned, cracked legs spiking into the air, with a lonesome chair, still the right way up, slouching with its splintered high back. Other than this sparse furniture and more gouges in the walls, the room was entirely empty, as far as Luke could see.

With his eyes adjusted, and nothing having jumped out to decapitate him, Luke cautiously stepped forwards, with the air of someone too curious to back away, but too intelligent to be unaware of the potential dangers. As he left the relative safety of the empty doorframe, the shadows seemed to melt away from around him, just as the temperature dropped a few degrees. From the gaping hole in the wall came a draft of wind, causing Luke’s hair to stir, eliciting a shiver from the desert-raised farmer. Just because the world was mostly made up of volcanoes and lava didn’t mean it couldn’t be cold. Especially to someone hailing from Tatooine.

Luke glanced around one final time before allowing his guard to drop. “Well, seems like it was a false alarm,” He grumbled to himself. Then, with practiced and bored ease, he lifted his comm to his lips and flicked it on. “Artoo? This place is abandoned.” A whistled filtered through the slightly crackling connection. The ancient thing had been playing up since Luke reached the top floor. “I’ve checked everywhere! No sign of anything that could give off a signal like that. I told you this would come up with nothing.” The astromech sent a rather rude, if disappointed, sounding blat through the commlink. “Yeah, I know. I’ll be back soon, okay? Just hold out, I’ll give you a good cleaning when we get back to Home One.” With a final hoot of goodbye, the line went silent and Luke pocketed the device once again. “Not even any useful spare parts, really?” He asked the room at large. “For a giant castle, this place is pretty useless.” With his final judgement made, Luke turned to leave, already anticipating meeting back up with his friends in the Alliance Fleet.

Within moments he was at the door, subconsciously relieved to be out of the ominous darkness and, has he stepped from the room, a small durasteel pebble tumbled from somewhere and knocked into the side of Luke’s soul-weary boots. It hit with enough force to make the young man stop in his tracks, startled. He then whipped around, lightsabre in his hands and ignited before he was fully turned to look back into the darkness, leaving yet another gouge in the durasteel walls.

Even the brilliant glow of Luke’s weapon couldn’t illuminate the room, and testing further down the castle had shown that the power was out. “Who’s there?!” He asked, voice shaky, betraying just how surprised he was. “Show yourself and I won’t hurt you, I promise.” Despite the sincere offer, nothing happened, except for an ominous clacking, as more miniscule pieces of durasteel and duracrete were dislodged by whatever was moving in the room.

After a few more minutes, in which silence returned to the room, Luke slowly became certain that he had jumped at nothing. It was a destroyed building, wasn’t it? Anything this damaged was bound to be crumbling down around his ears. But then, what if it wasn’t just that? Maybe someone needed help. But then, why hadn’t they called out when he first entered? It made no sense. The building was on the verge of collapse, that was all. And the Force, for whatever reason, had been urging him to leave ever since he got to this floor. Even someone as new to the mystical energy field as him could feel it; if Ben was alive, it would have felt quite close to deafening for him, Luke was sure.

But, the next time he turned to go, a wheezing breath stopped him in his tracks. Once again, Luke turned around. This time, however, he dashed into the room with no hesitation, igniting his lightsabre to stop himself from tripping and falling.

Into the new halo of visibility, the large shape, which Luke had previously shrugged off as a large boulder, turned out to be a half buried, bound man. What he had heard was the smaller pieces of debris shaking free.

The figure was kneeling and bowed forwards, his back and shoulders bearing the brunt of many boulders of duracrete upon them. By his sides, two large arms were pulled outwards by black chains, wound about his thick wrists, lower arms and then ended in broad shackles which managed to circle his biceps. At the ends of these chains, two metal stakes were driven into the ground, each one so far into the metal floor that the ring binding the chain to them was only a few centimetres from the durasteel.

“Oh…” Luke gasped as the sorry sight before him was revealed. “Just stay still, I’ll get you out of those!” His falter from seeing what exactly he had missed lasted less than a second, and he was rushing forward once again as he spoke, sliding to a stop before the figure, shrouded by shadows.

Kneeling down, Luke carefully began to position his lightsabre to cut away the manacles without damaging the man’s gauntleted hands. Just as he moved to cut through the thick durasteel, a rasping voice spoke into the near-silence, only interrupted by the soft hum of the Rebel’s ‘sabre.

“Luke…?” He asked, voice soft and so quiet it was almost indecipherable. Something about that voice sent spikes of ice jolting down Luke’s spine. He froze, a sudden urge to find out this man’s identity overtaking him. The ‘sabre was taken away from where it had hovered above the cuffs and travelled upwards to illuminate the man’s face, casting light upon the rest of his body as Luke moved it.

Black, swallowing armour rose out of the darkness, shining through the dust menacingly. A pauldron, shoulder guards. All showing signs of damage and appeared half melted. On the chest was a panel, filled with unlit bulbs and switches. Finally, the man’s face was gaunt and white, scars and ancient, open wounds scattered his bald skull. Twin blue eyes stared at him from this paleness, vibrant enough that they outshone even Luke’s ‘sabre. They were familiar in an indescribable, terrible way, which promised to bring Luke’s world crashing down into ashes.

“Vader?!” Luke eventually gasped, the word almost a panicked yell. He stumbled back, scrambling away as fast as he could, frantic to get away. This man had killed Ben, his aunt and uncle, even his father, an accomplished Jedi! But, despite how these facts bounced about inside Luke’s skull, his terror quickly dissolved into a sort of righteous anger. Vader was bound like a Life Day gift, with bonds that even he could not break. What better opportunity would there ever be to kill the murderous madman, whom had almost single-handedly nearly wiped out the Alliance so many times? Luke would be justified, no, hailed as a hero if he killed Vader then and there, no matter the circumstances. Anyone else would do the same.

The pale faced behemoth stared up at his potential executor calmly. A look of surprise must have been upon his face before, but now it had been wiped completely blank, save for the monstrous burns winding their way across his face. “If you are to kill me, do not hesitate.”

“What…?” That… hadn’t been the response Luke was expecting. Apparently, the stories of Vader being as far from a coward as a Tusken from civilised weren’t completely fabricated, despite them mostly hailing from the Imperial News Network.

“I shall die here regardless of what you do. A quick death is preferable over a long one.” Each word came out as a rasp, quiet enough that the lightsabre’s hum almost drowned him out.

“Why should I do anything for you?”

Vader stared up at the boy, face still stoic. “It is irrelevant to me. Act as you will.”

Luke nodded, a fierce anger twisting his face. He stepped forwards, his contorted features growing clearer to Vader’s ruined eyes as he came closer. It only took a few steps, and then Luke brought his lightsabre up to hang in the air beside Vader’s neck. Even though Luke new that Vader had to feel the intense heat from his weapon, the armoured man didn’t so much as look away, much less flinch. Instead, he continued to stare into his executioner’s eyes stubbornly, as if in defiance. Or something else.

That was what made Luke hesitate; those eyes. Not black lenses or the empty sockets of a skull, but two bright blue eyes, so familiar and similar to his own. They were human, and they held a sliver of humanity. But, hesitate was all it was. After that moment of indecision, he pulled back his lightsabre decisively. This man had murdered is father. There was nothing else to it.

Then he swung.

Vader's head separated from his shoulders in a single clean cut. The bald, scarred tissues bounced once and lay still, leaning against one of the thick chains which had held him. There was a strange look of relief upon his face, eyes still wide open, but the blue now glazed over. Luke stared down at it, emotionless, for a moment. And then, a great sweeping feeling of wrongness bowled into him through the Force. He could tell that he had done something terrible. This wasn't supposed to happen.

But, nothing could re-attach Vader's head to his neck, and so the only thing that happened after this realisation was that the small portion of nutri-paste Luke had managed to ingest came flying back up, spraying onto the floor in a thick, gooey congregation of disgust. Luke straightened and wiped his mouth with the back of his shaky hand, unaware that his 'sabre had clattered from his fingers.

"You killed my father," He declared in a surprisingly steady voice. "You deserved this."

Luke then turned away from the scene, only stopping to bend down and collect his lightsabre and then, upon spotting it, a portion of Vader's discarded mask.

Later, after further study, analysts in the Alliance theorised that this particular part had been mainly used as a breathing apparatus. There was no damage to it along the many seams, and so it could be inferred that the mechanism had been removed by Vader himself, which was particularly baffling, since it was probable that he needed the device to live.

It wasn't until much later, after the Emperor had been killed, that Luke learnt the truth. When he did, he wept, cradling the almost-forgotten portion of black mask to him, new prosthetics itching from their recent attachment. He could understand, then, after facing his father's master for himself, why anyone would want an escape from that, no matter what kind.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my short fic and I hope that you enjoyed ^-^
> 
> Kudos and comments make my day; I love replying to everyone!
> 
> As always, criticism is appreciated, and sorry for any grammatical/spelling errors.
> 
> ~Ommallaredpanda.


End file.
